First Contact
by Riker's Beard
Summary: After "Maelstrom", Season 3 Episode 17. The Twelve Colonies had never encountered alien life until the fleet led by the Galactica meets the galaxy at large. Does Starbuck's rescue by an alien ship after chasing a Cylon heavy raider in the orbit of a gas giant count as first contact? Or have the Colonials met aliens before and just not recognized them as such? Multiple crossovers.
1. Chapter 1

When Starbuck woke up she immediately realized she was no longer inside the cockpit of her Viper. She could hear the noise of machines and the sounds of unfamiliar voices. As she opened her eyes she saw a about a dozen or so weird looking creatures standing around or sitting on various kegs, crates and other containers.

"What kind of frakked up dream is this?" she wondered.

The creatures looked like worms standing on two long legs that had multiple joints. They each had a pair of long arms and three additional pairs of smaller arms on their chests. With their black, beady eyes and the two antennas on their heads, the creatures looked like something out of a comic book or a Sci-Fi movie. They all had the same proportions and she couldn't tell them apart. Most of the creatures were drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes; one smoked a joint, another one held a cigar which looked suspiciously like the one she kept in the pocket of her flight suit for special occasions. She immediately checked if it was still there. It was gone. And so was her pistol.

"Ahhh, sleeping beauty has awoken," one of the aliens said. The others of his kind responded with laughter.

"Where the frak am I?"

"On our ship", one of the worm creatures who was sitting on a keg answered.

"We saved you", a second one added.

Starbuck looked around and saw the floor on the other end of the room littered with parts of her Viper. She couldn't believe what she saw. The fighter had been completely dismantled and it seemed like some parts were missing completely.

"What the frak have you guys done to my Viper?" she cursed.

Starbuck was angry, but she didn't want to provoke the aliens. She didn't know what they were capable of. They might be the only ones who could get her back to Galactica. If any human had messed with her like that, she would have punched him in the face. Hard. The worms looked fragile, but Starbuck knew that looks could be deceiving. Gods know what kind of technology they have.

"My brother is building an espresso machine for us, and he needed some parts", the worm said.

"You are saying your brother is using the fuel pump from my Viper for his espresso machine?"

"My brother is a very talented engineer", the worm said, lighting the cigar he had pilfered from her pocket.

"One of the best", another worm added.

"Frakkin' great. How am I supposed to get back to the Galactica now?"

"Not our problem!" a chorus of worms answered cheerfully.

Starbuck rummaged around until she found the Viper's radio in the midst of all the parts. She turned it on, glad that it was still in one piece and with a full battery, and tried to contact her ship.

"Galactica, this is Starbuck, do you copy?"

She did not get a response, only static.

"Starbuck? Coffee!" the worms shouted in unison.

"You will make coffee for us!" said the worm that was holding her cigar.

"I will do no such thing. Hey, give that back, you frakkin' worm thing", Starbuck shouted and tried to take the cigar away from the worm.

"Your name is Starbuck. Cousin Neeble says Starbuck's coffee is the best." the worm said and stuck the cigar in his mouth.

Starbuck was furious, but she couldn't let her temper get the best of her. Over the years it had gotten her into more than enough trouble. This was the first contact with a non-human civilization. These worms were not outright hostile, just...annoying. They were obviously playing with her, but they might have technology or information that could help the fleet in the fight against the Cylons.

"By the way, where are you guys from?"

"A small planet orbiting a binary star about 30 light years away", the worm explained.

"I'm from Caprica, but it is gone now..."

"You are not from Earth?" a worm asked confused.

"Caprica? Never heard of." another said.

"A human who is not from Earth?" a third one said perplexed.

"You guys know about Earth?"

"Yes. Earth, the home world of the humans, a place where everyone can drink coffee!"

"And smoke cigarettes!"

"And drink booze!"

"A paradise!"

"Has anyone of you ever been to Earth?" Starbuck asked.

Several of the worms raised their primary hands.

"Some of us have relatives who live there permanently", one said.

"And they live on Earth together with humans in peace?"

"Most humans don't know they are there. Only the ones in the black suits. And they make sure that the others don't find out."

"So why can't you drink coffee on your home world?"

"Because the Emperor Worm only allows the nobles to drink coffee."

"The Emperor Worm is large..."

"...and in charge."


	2. Chapter 2

If those frakking worms had not taken her pistol away, she would have shot them first and asked questions later. It had taken her all her willpower not to grab the most annoying one of them and smash him into a bulkhead. They seemed physically weak and she could have easily taken on several of them at a time. A fine mess she had gotten herself into. Cut off from the fleet, her Viper in pieces. But things could be much worse. At least she didn't have to deal with a bad knee this time.

The Colonials have been able to travel through space at faster than light speed for centuries, but they had never encountered any non-human life. Most people from the Twelve Colonies believed that all human life originated on Kobol and that there was no other intelligent life out there. There were a few people in the fleet who did believe in non-human life. Most of those people belonged to a group that called itself the Disciples of the Doctor, an underground religious organization that had originated on Cloud Nine and spread across the other ships over the past two years. Starbuck thought they were a bunch of crazy lunatics, but at least they were not causing any major trouble.

The Colonial Defense Force had of course First Contact protocols, just in case they would encounter any other sentient beings from other worlds. However, instructors at the Colonial Fleet Academy would usually rush through them, push them toward the end of the curriculum, or not teach them at all. In the past few years before the Fall of the Colonies they had not even been part of any exam. Starbuck vaguely remembered that there was such a set of rules for conduct in a first contact situation. But when she had been a cadet she had missed the day the topic was covered, since she had been in detention for pulling dangerous stunts with her viper during flight training the day before.

She just wanted to get back to the fleet. Let the admiral deal with any aliens. Maybe she should try to take over the ship. The controls were probably completely alien, but if she managed to figure out how to fly a Cylon raider, she could probably fly this tub as well. But something inside her kept telling her to calm down. Before the fall of the Colonies her actions affected only herself. If she frakked up, she got thrown in the brig or it cost her a promotion. At worst, it could cost her own life. But now things were different. She, like all the other viper pilots, was responsible for what was left of humanity. A single mistake could mean the extinction of the human race. It was already hard enough protecting the fleet from the Cylons, they didn't need another enemy.

She was shocked by her own thoughts. Was she getting old? Or was she growing up? As much as she wanted to, she could not let her emotions get the best of herself. She needed to consider the safety of the fleet. She owed it to Sam, to Lee, to the admiral, and everybody else who had become her family over the past few years.

Yes, those worms were true aliens. The ship she was on appeared to be a civilian ship, some sort of freighter. But maybe they had a military, a fleet, something that could defeat the Cylons. The thought occurred to her that if she could lead the worm aliens back to the fleet, they could trade technology and supplies with them. Maybe the worms could introduce Admiral Adama and President Roslin to their leader, this Emperor Worm they had mentioned earlier, and work out an alliance.

And Lords know what else was out there. There might be thousands of different types of aliens. The Colonials just have never encountered any of them. No Colonial ship has ever been more than a few jumps away from the Colonies. There has been no real space exploration program. The job of the military had been to protect the Colonies from the Cylons since the first Cylon war, and before that the Colonies had been too busy fighting each other. Civilian space travel had been limited to mining, cargo hauling, and passenger travel between the Colonies and outposts in the Cyrannus System. None of the neighboring systems contained any habitable planets. Most companies that had been able to afford modern and well-equipped spacecraft had not considered it worth the risk to send an expedition out into the unknown. Adventurers who had tried anyway seldom came back. The exodus of the refugee fleet had been the farthest expedition since the founding of the Colonies.

Some people in the fleet claim that the Colonials first contact with an alien race had happened two years earlier, in the midst of the presidential election. During that time, a raptor piloted by Racetrack had misjumped on a rescue mission to Caprica and accidentally discovered a habitable planet. The planet was inhabited by a man named Slartibartfast. However, Slartibartfast, who had claimed he and his people had designed and built the Twelve Colonies, had looked and acted like a human, albeit like one who had a few screws loose. The general consensus among the survivors in the fleet was that Slartibartfast was a crewmember or a passenger of a ship that had jumped beyond the red line many decades ago and landed on Magrathea. He was considered mentally deranged, a heretic and a blasphemer by most Colonials. Except by a few officers and scientists, who mostly kept their opinion to themselves. His story about the origin of Earth and the Twelve Colonies had incensed the religious fundamentalists, who had called for his immediate execution.

_Author's note: Chapter 3 will be a flashback, since the events in it are set two years before chapter 1. When I got the idea for chapter 3, I had already posted chapter 1, that's why the events are not in chronological order. I want to thank all reviewers for taking the time to read this story and for posting comments. Constructive criticism and suggestions to improve my stories are always welcome._


	3. Chapter 3

Those worms knew about Earth. Starbuck needed to keep talking to them. Maybe they would reveal its location to her.

"So, some of you said earlier you've been to Earth?" she started.

"Yep, cool place. Spent my vacation there. Lots of fun", one of the worms said, filling up a large coffee mug.

"What do you want on Earth? You don't strike me as the fun type", another worm said. Several others laughed.

Starbuck grabbed the worm by his midsection, lifted him up and yelled: "Not the fun type? Do you want me to show you some fun, you frakking worm thing? Do you want me to show you some fun?" She shook him and kept yelling: Quit frakking with me, you creepy little freak or your friends can scrape you off the floor!"

She managed to calm down and put the worm alien back on his feet. Then she spotted a clear bottle in one of the crates. She pulled it out and unscrewed the top.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you", a worm alien wearing a large hat warned.

"Shut the frak up!" she shouted at him.

"Seriously, this stuff is not good for humans to drink. In fact, the humans on Earth use it to clean carpets" the worm said and handed her a different bottle. "Here, try this instead."

She tossed the first bottle on the floor and took the one the alien handed to her. The label of the new bottle said "Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Whiskey" in letters that suggested that the people on Earth were using the same Alphabet as the Colonials.

She opened the bottle and took a sip.

"What is that place you come from? Caprica?" the worm with the large hat asked.

Starbuck figured that if she wanted those aliens to be more forthcoming, she had to give them some information first. So she told them about the Twelve Colonies, how they got destroyed by the Cylons, and how a small fleet of survivors escaped and was now searching for Earth.

"Why Earth? Why not settle somewhere else?" one of the worms asked.

"We tried that. It didn't go over too well"

"Tell us!" the worm begged.

"Yeah, tell us, one of the others said."

"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" the whole chorus of worms chanted.

Again, Starbuck wished for her pistol. She really wanted to shoot these guys.

"Okay, I make you guys a deal. I'll tell you what happened on New Caprica, or Magrathea, or whatever the frak you want to call that shithole of a planet, and you give me the coordinates of Earth. Deal?" Starbuck suggested and took another sip from the bottle.

"Deal!" the worms shouted in unison and Starbuck began to tell them how one of the pilots accidentally discovered the planet Magrathea when a Raptor jumped to the wrong coordinates on a rescue mission to Caprica.

_2 years earlier (270 days after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies): _

"But I think it is a glitch in the nav computer firmware. Bottom line is that we are far from where we are supposed to be, Skipper", Hamish "Skulls" McCall, the ECO said.

"Okay, ahem, any chance that we could still catch up with them?" Racetrack asked.

"Not a chance. Mission rules say we head back", Skulls replied.

"Frack me, this was the first jump", Racetrack complained.

"Yeah, but you gave me those coordinates", Skulls retorted.

"Back to the barn", Racetrack said, visibly disappointed that their mission was already over before it began.

Heey, I'm picking up a large planetary body. It's frakking close.

An image of a planet suddenly appeared on the screen in the center of the cockpit.

"Where did that come from?" Racetrack wondered.

"Hell if I know" Skulls said," There was so much DRADIS interference, it didn't even register.

The two marines on the back seats leaned forward to get a closer look.

"Hey, check this out: Atmosphere is Nitrogen-Oxygen, organic molecular spectra, fresh water", Racetrack said excited. She paused. "Hey, you know what this is? It's habitable. We may just have found a world that can support human life (looking at her copilot). We are not such a bunch of frak ups after all!"

Suddenly they could hear the sound of a trumpet and a holographic image of an old man with a long beard appeared in the cockpit of the raptor:

"Greetings to you", the hologram said. 'This is a recorded announcement, as I'm afraid we're all out at the moment. The commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for your esteemed visit but regrets that the entire planet is temporarily closed for business. Thank you."

"If you would like to leave your name and your address on a planet where you can be contacted, kindly speak when you hear the tone", the hologram added. Then there was a beep tone.

Racetrack and Skulls looked at each other for a moment, and then jumped their Raptor back to the Galactica to report their findings. Back aboard the Galactica they discussed what they had found with Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh. Lt. Gaeta was also present. He had already analyzed some of the data they had brought back.

"I've climate readings overall within human norms" Tigh said, looking at the report.

"There is some extremes at the poles that we couldn't withstand, but that's not unusual" Gaeta said.

"Well done" Adama said

"Thank you, sir", the pilots replied.

"What do you make of that strange hologram they described in their report?" Tigh asked after Racetrack and Skulls had left the room.

"Looks like someone got there before we did." Adama replied. "There've been plenty of reports of ships jumping beyond the red line and disappearing."

"That someone seems to have a really frakked up sense of humor, If you're asking me. Tigh commented.

"We haven't used hologram technology since the first war with the Cylons", Gaeta said. "I guess who ever recorded this got here a long time ago and is probably long dead by now."

Aboard the Battlestar Pegasus, Commander Lee Adama was briefing a group of Viper pilots about their upcoming survey mission.

"We got a mottled area here at the river mouth. So it's probably a delta. The Chances are we got significant plant and animal life, so I want a lot of nice low passes across here, Lee said, pointing an enlarged copy of the image that had been taken by Racetrack's raptor.

Some of the pilots nodded.

"I also want you guys to look out for any ships on the surface, wreckage, a shelter, or any other signs that someone has been here before."

The Vipers were supposed to do several flyovers over the habitable areas on the planet's equator and record data. It was also planned to land a survey team aboard a Raptor and have them explore a small area on foot and collect samples of the vegetation. Unfortunately there was currently only one Raptor available, since most Raptors were being used on a rescue mission to retrieve a group of resistance fighters from Cylon occupied Caprica. The remaining Raptors were either undergoing maintenance or being used to ferry people and supplies between ships in the fleet.

As soon as the Pegasus had jumped into orbit of the newly discovered planet, Lee Adama immediately ordered to establish a CAP, as it was standard military procedure. Suddenly, the same hologram that Racetrack and Skulls had seen a few days earlier appeared in the CIC of the Pegasus.

"Greetings to you", the hologram said.

"What the frak is that?" Dee said aloud, even though she had read about the hologram in the report.

'This is a recorded announcement, as I'm afraid we're all out at the moment. The commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for your esteemed visit but regrets that the entire planet is temporarily closed for business. Thank you."

"He can't be serious", Dee said.

"If you would like to leave your name and your address on a planet where you can be contacted, kindly speak when you hear the tone", the hologram added, followed by the beep tone again.

"Looks like they want us to leave. What are your orders", Lt Hoshi asked.

"It's just an old recording. We continue our mission", the commander said. "Whoever left that behind is probably long gone."

But then the hologram continued with another recorded message: "It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated and so we would like to assure you that the guided missiles currently converging with your ship are a part of our service we extend to all of our most enthusiastic clients and that the fully armed nuclear warheads are of course merely a curtesy detail. We look forward to doing business with you in future lives. Thank You" Then there was another beep tone.

"Launch alert vipers", Lee ordered.

Dee took the phone and relayed the orders to the flight deck. The alert vipers launched immediately.

In the meantime, deep underground Magrathea an automated defense mechanism calculated that the usual two nuclear missiles normally launched to deal with intruders were not sufficient to destroy a target the size of the Pegasus plus several fighters. The defense system therefore decided to launch all remaining nuclear missiles. Fortunately for the Pegasus and everyone on board, only eight missiles were left, after the others had been either used up over the millennia to deter other intruders or simply malfunctioned. It was also fortunate for the Pegasus that the automated factory that would normally replenish those missiles had been destroyed in a ground quake several hundred years earlier.

"Radiological Alarm!" Lt. Hoshi reported, "Eight nuclear missiles just appeared on DRADIS. They seem to have been launched from the surface."

"Move fighters to intercept", Lee ordered. "Mr. Hoshi, get me a firing solution for main batteries and point defense guns!"


	4. Chapter 4

Admiral William Adama and his XO Colonel Saul Tigh were discussing the report Lee Adama, commander of the battlestar Pegasus, had given regarding his survey mission to the recently discovered planet.

"Lee's report says that his vipers managed to destroy the missiles with ease." the Admiral said

"At least nobody got hurt and his pilots got some target practice." the XO said.

"He decided to scrub the survey mission, since he could not guarantee for the safety of the raptor crew", Adama continued.

"That was a wise move; we have no clue what we can expect down there. No need in risking the lives of our people. I suggest we just forget about it and move on." Tigh said.

"I've been thinking about that hologram, Saul", the Admiral said, "We had some pretty advanced virtual reality technology back in the day, but I can't remember anything as sophisticated as that."

"Do you suspect a Cylon trick?" Colonel Tigh asked.

"I don't think they have anything advanced enough to project a hologram directly inside a ship through several layers of thick metal. Besides that, why would they go through all that trouble?" the admiral responded.

"You're right, Bill. And the attack on the Pegasus. The Cylons had better nukes than that during the first war. This all doesn't make any sense to me", Tigh said.

"It could be some stragglers from the thirteenth tribe. Maybe some of them didn't want to go all the way to Earth and decided to settle here instead", Admiral Adama suggested.

"Do you know what you're saying could be considered blasphemy?" Tigh warned.

Baltar was pacing in his lab. He was in a fairly bad mood, since his election campaign was not going very well. "Who cares about that stupid planet anyway? All this song and dance over nothing. Less than 20% of that place actually supports human life, so."

The imaginary model Six Cylon, that only Baltar could see and hear, was sitting, or rather laying on a table, wearing a black dress, and observing Baltar and Zarek.

"You're not seeing the big picture. This is your new home. The place where you lead a new life. This is the future, Gaius", the imaginary six said.

"Now that is a depressing thought", he responded.

"What sir?" Baltar's campaign manager Tom Zarek asked.

Nothing, Tom. Just err, can you imagine if we actually had to live on that thing?

"You", Tom said looking at the image of the planet's surface, "are a genius"

"And?" Baltar said arrogantly, as if Tom was stating the obvious, and sat down on a chair.

"Pay attention. You're about to win the election", the imaginary Six told him.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying, Tom?" Baltar asked.

"We needed an issue, something to set us apart from Roslin. Something to put her clearly on the wrong side of a major issue", Tom responded.

Baltar stood up again.

"Something people care passionately about. This is it. Permanent settlement on this planet." Tom Zarek explained

"Permanent settlement here?" Baltar laughed. "You lost your marbles".

The imaginary Six was smiling.

It may look dreary and it may be dreary, but it's solid ground under your feet and real sky over your head. You'd be surprised what a powerful idea that is to people cooped up in metal boxes for nine months.

"You should listen to him, Gaius. He's a smart, sexy man, just like you", the imaginary Six said.

"Give up", Baltar said to the imaginary Six

"What", Zarek asked, thinking Baltar was addressing him.

"Give up on Earth", Baltar answered, trying to save himself from embarrassment.

"Yes", Zarek said.

"So you say we'd settle here?" Baltar asked.

"Yes", Zarek said.

Both men laughed.

"But you forget that there is somebody on that planet who doesn't want us down there. This somebody obviously has nukes and is not afraid to use them." Baltar reminded.

"An automated defense system. Maybe our ancestors had an outpost down there before they left Kobol. Or some pre-war battlestar that had jumped beyond the red line and crashed there decades ago. The nukes that were launched at the Pegasus were ancient. It's nothing our military won't be able to handle. Send some marines down and switch it off. Or blow it up if necessary." Zarek suggested.

"Hmm", Baltar said, thinking about what Zarek just told him.

"The destroyer Prometheus disappeared four years before the first war with the Cylons and the cruiser Acropolis disappeared seven years before that" Both jumped beyond the red line and were never heard of again. If we can refresh peoples' memories on these events and let them connect the dots, we should be in business", he continued.

Well, that place is starting to look like a lovely little planet after all", Baltar said. Zarek smiled and both shook hands.

Aboard Colonial One Laura Roslin was going through the results of the polls with her campaign staff.

"This is a rest stop. A place to load up on food and water." she said.

"Every ship in the fleet has people begging, pleading, demanding they get time on the surface, if only for a few hours", Her campaign manager Tori Foster said, looking up from the report she was reading.

"A few hours is one thing, but permanent settlement is quite another", Roslin responded.

"Suddenly Baltar is holding up hope for breathing real air, growing real food, sleeping in a bed instead in a bunk, living in a house instead of a ship", Foster said.

"It's fantasy. Look at the mission reports. All the data indicates that life on this planet would be hard. It will be a struggle to even eke a living out for a few years", Laura Roslin countered.

"Today's polls also show that he is making headway with the idea that because the planet is hidden in a nebula, it will provide a refuge from the Cylons", Foster said.

"Are we now assuming that Cylon technology is not sufficient enough to find this planet? We just found it", President Roslin reminded her.

"Madam President, in my opinion people vote their hopes, not their fears. Baltar is offering them what they wanna hear and you're offering them a bitter reality." Foster countered.

"I'm offering them the truth", Laura Roslin stated.

They don't want to hear the truth. They're tired, exhausted. The idea of stopping, laying down their burdens and starting a new life right now is what is resonating with the voters", Foster explained.

"How is it resonating?" Laura asked.

"It could turn the entire election around", Tori answered.

"What about the automated defense system that launched nuclear missiles at the Pegasus?" the president asked.

"Baltar has people convinced that one of our own ships ended up down there some 50 or 60 years ago, jumping beyond the red line and crashing on the surface. He has even gone so far and dug up news articles about the Prometheus and the Acropolis, which both had vanished around that time", Tori Foster responded.

"How does he explain the holograms reported by our Raptor and by the Pegasus? They are clearly far more advanced compared to what we had before the first war" Roslin asked.

"Yeah, but he counts on the fact that hardly anybody ever takes the time to research that. Many people can't remember all the details of life before the first war, and most others were not even born yet", Foster answered.

"I would think that my position and the position of my, err, campaign is abundantly clear", Baltar announced.

"Madam President, you have 30 seconds to respond", the moderator, a broad shouldered man in a brown suit, said to Roslin.

"Well, my initial response is: There he goes again. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Baltar is distorting the real issues before us. The issue here, the real question is not allowing the scriptures to dictate the policies of this government. The question is: Do the scriptures contain real world relevance? Do they contain the information necessary to guide us to a safer home than some completely unknown planet that we just discovered? Obviously my answer to that question is yes. I have always continued to feel the scriptures hold real world relevance", Roslin responded.

"Mr. Vice President, the next question is for you. How do you respond to the charges that you seize the idea of permanent settlement on this planet as opportunistic gamble, ahem, some would say construed as a desperate move from a campaign that was falling behind in every poll?", the moderator asked.

"Well, you know ahem, that is an excellent question, in fact. Thank you. And I am only too glad to have the opportunity to respond to it. You see that I have long been a proponent in the search Earth. The promise of not only finding a new home, but also the prospect of discovering our long lost brothers and sisters from the 13th colony is a powerful one. And one I have believed in heart and soul. But the trouble is, the Cylons continue to follow us as they have done every step of the way since the destruction of the colonies. And if we have the opportunity to change this dynamic, to stop this deadly chase, shouldn't we take it? My answer is yes." Baltar responded.

"Thank you. Madam President, 30 seconds", the moderator said.

"There is no assurance, none whatsoever, that the Cylons don't already know about this planet, that they don't make regular stops there looking for us. And that in fact they aren't simply waiting for us to settle on the surface so they can jump us. And should we simply ignore the fact that missiles with nuclear warheads had been launched at the Pegasus from the surface?" Roslin countered.

"I have to respond to that. I simply have to respond to that", Baltar interrupted.

"I'll give you 15 seconds", the moderator said.

"All you've seen right now, ladies and gentlemen, is another example of fear to drive her campaign. Fear of the Gods, fear of the Cylons, fear of fear itself. Is it not time to stop being afraid? And regarding those missiles, they are most likely from one of our own ships that went missing decades ago. Possibly an automated defense system that can be easily deactivated. I'm asking all of us to stop running from our lives and start living them. Thank you", Baltar responded.

"Thank you. That is all we have time for today. I would like to thank the candidates for their frankness today in this very exciting debate. This concludes the cycle of the debates for the presidency. The polls will open in three days. Please vote. Thank you and good night", the moderator said and the audience applauded.

President Roslin, Admiral Adama, and Roslin's campaign manager Tori Foster were listening to a radio broadcast.

"With me now is the campaign manager for Dr. Gaius Baltar, Mr. Tom Zarek. Tom, welcome", the reporter began. "You were in there with us today, what is your impression?"

"Well, I thought Dr. Baltar did exceptionally well. He laid his vision out for the future and offered the people a way out of the terror and the suffering that defined so many of their lives. On the other hand I found myself wondering how Roslin's argument against settlement can possibly win." Tom Zarek responded.


	5. Chapter 5

Dr. Baltar continued to gain in the polls. Through the use of speculations and deliberate misinformation he had managed to convince the voters that the missiles fired on the Pegasus were Colonial in origin and had been part of the armament of a ship that had crashed on the surface decades ago. He even had talked about plans to send marines to capture the missile launchers intact, so they could be upgraded and used to defend the planet, which he now called New Caprica, in case it was discovered by the Cylons.

Meanwhile, Starbuck had returned to Galactica with the resistance fighters, much to the delight of Admiral William Adama. This also meant that there were now enough raptors available to land ground teams on the planet for a more extensive survey mission before the settlement would begin.

Fearing that she had indeed lost the presidential race, Roslin took several desperate measures to still win the election, even going as far as allowing her supporters, Colonel Tigh among them, to go ahead and switch out the ballots in her favor. However, Lt. Gaeta discovered that the ballots had been tampered with. Baltar had won the election and Admiral Adama managed to convince him not launch an investigation. President-elect Baltar then ordered him to set a course for "New Caprica".

Aboard the battlestar Pegasus Commander Lee Adama was holding a mission briefing for the ground teams. Raptor crews, marines, and several civilians were present. Among the civilians were geologists, botanists, zoologists, and civil engineers.

"We have managed to pinpoint the location from where the missiles were fired at the Pegasus", Commander Lee Adama said. The marines, who make up team alpha, will land here", he pointed at the map, "and attempt to capture the missile installation intact. Watch out for automated defenses and booby traps", he cautioned.

Several marines nodded.

"Team Beta will land at our main landing site over there", he pointed at another part of the map, "where the ground is even enough to land most of the civilian ships. You will inspect the landing site and report anything that could lead to problems."

"Team Charlie will land a little further south, right here, where we are going to establish our main settlement.

"The other teams will explore various points of interest across the habitable zone of the planet. All raptor pilots will be provided with the coordinates of your designated landing sites. All teams are to report in once every hour, any hostile encounters or unusual events are to be reported immediately. All teams except team Alpha will return for debriefing 12 hours after launch. Team Alpha will guard the missile installation until being relieved. Any questions?" Commander Lee Adama asked.

The fleet jumped into orbit of Magrathea/New Caprica. All ships appeared in bright flashes of light, one after another.

"Jump completed, we are in orbit around New Caprica", one of the crewmembers in Galactica's CIC reported.

"All ships have been accounted for", Dualla reported.

"Send word to the Pegasus to launch the initial ground teams onto the surface", Adama ordered. "Let's get a good look at our new home. Gods help us all".

Aboard Colonial One, in front of the cameras and microphones of the assembled reporters, with the representatives of the Quorum of the Twelve next to him, president Baltar was sworn into office as president of the twelve Colonies. A priest was standing next to the newly elected president, reading the oath of office from a scroll, while Baltar repeated after him.

"If you raise your right hand and repeat after me: I, Gaius Baltar, do now avow and affirm..." the priest said.

"I, Gaius Baltar, do now avow and affirm..." Baltar raised his hand and repeated.

"...that I take the office of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol without any moral reservation or mental evasion..." the priest continued.

"...that I take the office of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol without any moral reservation or mental evasion..." Baltar continued repeating.

"...That I will protect and defend the Articles of Colonization..." the priest went on.

"...That I will protect and defend the Articles of Colonization..." Baltar kept repeating

"...with every fiber of my being", the priest finished.

"...with every fiber of my being", Baltar finished repeating

Gina Inviere sat in her quarters, naked, crying. She watched the broadcast of Gaius Baltar's inauguration, while the timer on the nuclear device beside her was ticking away.

"Congratulations, Mr. President", the priest said and shook Baltar's hand. Others congratulated the new president and the crowd applauded. Laura Roslin looked at him, defeated and disappointed.

Suddenly Gina could hear a strange mechanical wheezing, groaning sound behind her, slowly getting louder and louder.

"I accept the role offered to me by the Colonies with humility and gratitude. Thank you. Gentlemen, wait. And now, because it was the first will of the people, I am going to sign my first executive order, requiring to immediately establish settlements on the planet we have come to know as New Caprica", President Baltar announced. Laura Roslin stood next to William Adama, their disgust at Baltar's arrogance clearly visible on their faces.

As Gina turned around, she saw a tall, blue wooden box slowly fading into existence behind her.

"You have your orders", Baltar said to Adama, who looked at him silently. The first ships would land as soon as the ground teams had returned and been debriefed.

The box appearing in Gina's quarters had the words "Police Box" written on all sides and a white light on top of the box was flashing. Gina rubbed her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She got up from the floor and picked up her clothes. The box had now completely materialized and the sound had stopped. She had quickly put her clothes back on and stood there staring when suddenly the door of the strange blue box flung open and a skinny man in a brown pinstripe suit jumped out.

She didn't scream. She just stood there in shock with her mouth open, staring at the box and the strange man. He quickly looked around in her quarters, at her furniture, the nuclear device, then at her. He seemed hyperactive, as if he had had way too much coffee.

"Strange, this doesn't look like 12th century Japan to me", the jumpy man said with an accent very similar to Baltar's, but not quite.

Then he pulled something that looked like a pen with a blue light on it out of the pocket of his jacket, and pointed it at the nuclear device. The strange tool emitted a noise and the countdown immediately stopped.

"Aah, that's better", he said, putting that weird pen back into his pocket. "Those countdown clock things always make me kinda nervous, you know?"

"Who or what are you?" Gina finally managed to speak.

"I am the Doctor", the man introduced himself. "And it's actually not the countdown clock that makes me nervous, but the device it's hooked up to", he corrected himself.

_Author's note: I have not described the details of Starbuck's rescue mission to Caprica, the discovery of the model one Cylons, or Chief Tyrol's struggle with his nightmares, since those events happen exactly as shown in the season 2 finale. For the same reason I only briefly summarize Roslin's actions and the election. I admit that this and the previous chapter were kinda dry, but I felt that I needed to include the election campaign to show how my story is now slowly beginning to diverge from the series. The next chapters are going to be more exciting._


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's note:_

_ WarBeserk: Suit yourself. This story had already been a multi universe crossover since chapter 2, if you haven't been paying attention. _

_ Ridli Scott: I didn't want Gina and all those people on Cloud 9 and the other ships to die. Having the Doctor show up to defuse the warhead seemed the best solution at the time. He will play an important role in later chapters._

_ Robo Reader 21: Thanks for always keeping me on my toes about inconsistencies. By the way, I have the multiple universes under control and I am even planning to add a few more. Yes, I'm insane. Don't Panic._

_ All reviewers: Thanks again for taking the time to read my story and posting comments. Your comments help me_ _greatly improving my story. _

Several raptors had landed on different locations in the habitable part of the planet. Each raptor, except the two sent to capture the missile installation, carried a pilot, an ECO, and two marines. Some of them had civilian scientists and engineers on board as well.

"There is an opening over here. I think we should check that out", one of the marines shouted.

"Looks like a tunnel", Helo said. That's definitely worth checking out."

Helo contacted the Pegasus and reported what they had found. Then he and his team entered the tunnel. After a while they discovered some strange symbols on the wall, which Helo suspected to be Old Kobolian.

In the meantime, Racetrack and Skulls had landed with their team on a plateau in a rocky area. Their task was to determine if this would be a suitable site to build a communications tower.

It went dark rather quickly on this part of the planet. After they had been walking for a while, Racetrack got hungry for a snack and realized that she had forgotten her candy bar in the Raptor and decided to go back and get it.

"I forgot something in the Raptor. I'll be right back", Racetrack said and walked away from the rest of her group for a moment.

"Watch out for bug-eyed monsters", Skulls joked.

After she had gotten the candy bar out of the raptor and slowly unwrapped it on her way back, she thought she had heard something and stopped for a moment.

"You chose a cold night to visit our dead planet", a voice behind her said. She turned around and saw an old man in a white robe with long grey hair and a long grey beard standing a few feet away from her. She immediately recognized him as the old man from the hologram.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"My name is not important", he answered and began taking measurements with a strange instrument, some sort of electronic sextant which emitted a series of short, fast beeps.

"You kinda scared me, popping out of nowhere behind my back", she said.

"Do not be alarmed. I will not harm you", the man reassured her.

"But you fired nuclear missiles at our ship", Racetrack said.

"An automated system. Ancient computers ranged in the long caves deep in the bowels of the planet tick away the long millennia and the ages hang heavy on their dusty databanks. I believe they take the occasional potshot to relieve the monotony. I'm a great fan of science, you know", the old man explained, walking around. Then he stopped and looked through his instrument again.

Racetrack thought the man must have been a junior officer or junior crewman on his first tour in his late teens or early twenties at the time when his ship had crashed here fifty some odd years ago. If there had been other survivors, most of them would have died of old age by now.

"Really?" she asked.

"Oh, yes", he answered.

She pulled out her comm unit to report that she had met a stranger on the surface, but it didn't seem to be working.

"You seem ill at ease", the man said, suddenly standing behind Racetrack.

"Yes, well, actually I don't think we expected anyone to be around. In fact, no disrespect, but I figured you were all dead", Racetrack said, still thinking he was a crewmember of a ship that had crashed here decades ago.

"Dead, no. We have but slept for five million years. Nothing much seems to have changed"

"Slept? For five million years?" Racetrack couldn't believe what she was hearing. This guy is a few feathers short of a whole duck, she thought. She decided not to tell him that the Cylons had destroyed the Colonies, for fear that might upset him.

"Yes, through the economic recession." he explained.

"Economic recession?" she asked confused.

"Well, you see, five million years ago the galactic economy collapsed, seeing that custom built planets are something of a luxury commodity. "You know we build planets here?"

"I kind of figured that", she said, playing along. He must have gone insane from being on that planet here all by himself for the last 50 years, she thought to herself. He had probably spent most of that time watching science fiction movies and reading comic books that had survived the crash, that's where he had gotten his crazy ideas from. Maybe he had hit his head pretty hard when his ship crashed.

"Fascinating trade. Doing the coastlines was almost my favorite thing. I used to have endless fun doing all the little fiddly bits around fjords. Well, anyway, the recession came and we thought it would save a lot of bother if we just slept through it. So we programmed the computers to revive us when it was all over. "

"Huh?"

"They were index linked to the galactic stock market prices, you see? So that we would all be revived when everybody else had the economy revived enough to be able to afford our rather expensive services"

"Isn't that rather unethical behavior?" she asked, just to keep the conversation going.

"Ah, is it? I'm afraid I'm a bit out of touch."

"Have you guys seen Racetrack? She should be back by now", Skulls asked the two marines.

"She is right over there", one of them said, pointing with his finger.

"I wonder who that old guy is", Skulls said, "Looks like the one from the hologram".

"I don't know. He just showed up a few minutes ago and she's been following him around since then", the marine said.

Racetrack and the man came closer and the marines pointed their rifles at him.

"Put your guns down, he's harmless", she said to the marines.

"You heard what the young lady said. I don't think you would want to shoot an unarmed old man", he said to the marines.

The marines slowly lowered their rifles.

"This is Lt. McCall and these are Sgt. Nowart and Sgt. Fischer", she introduced her team.

"And this is, err. Excuse me, what is your name, by the way?"

"My name? My name is Slartibartfast"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Slartibartfast"

"Slartibartfast?" Racetrack laughed

"I said it wasn't important"

The day after his inauguration as president of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Dr. Baltar sat behind his desk aboard Colonial One, looking at a report in front of him that had the word "CONFIDENTIAL" printed on the cover page.

"Maintenance crews found a nuclear warhead inside a storage room aboard Cloud Nine this morning. We suspect the warhead was stolen from your lab, then smuggled aboard Cloud Nine by a Cylon agent with the intent to detonate it", Adama told him.

"Can I interest you in a cup of tea... ambrosia, whiskey?" Baltar offered, visibly uncomfortable with the topic, considering his involvement in getting the warhead aboard Cloud 9.

"Mr. President. This may be the first step of a coordinated Cylon attack." Adama said, "I suggest our first priority be to focus in on internal security."

"No. No, I don't think so. My first priority is to the people. To see that they are safely established... on New Caprica", Baltar said, trying to change topics.

"You're not listening"

"I don't have to listen. I'm the president", Baltar said defiantly and sipped his drink. "The settlement begins and it begins now."

Admiral Adama had his orders from the president. They were to settle on the recently discovered planet, and there was nothing he could do about it now. At least he had managed to convince President Baltar to let him send out survey teams in raptors first to explore the planet to make sure that there are no threats and that the location chosen for settlement is really the most suitable one.

Meanwhile, Adama was to coordinate all the logistics involved in landing a large portion of the fleet with the captains of the individual civilian ships, and prepare the Galactica and Pegasus to run with skeleton crews. As soon as the ground teams had returned and been debriefed, the first ships would land in their designated landing areas.

Below the surface of the planet, Helo and his team had been wandering through the tunnel for quite some time. Suddenly they heard footsteps.

"I thought I just saw a movement down at the end of the corridor", a man who had served as Helo's ECO said.

The two marines pointed their rifles in the direction the sounds were coming from. "Who's there?" Helo shouted, "Identify yourself!"

"Please do not kill Zathras", a middle aged, slightly hunchbacked man pleaded, raising his hands. His face looked mottled, as if he was suffering from some kind of skin disease, and he was wearing shabby clothes made from animal skins. Clothes that looked as if he had probably made them himself.


	7. Chapter 7

"Who are you and what are you doing on this planet?" Helo asked.

"Zathras work here. You work up there, Zathras work down here. You dress like that, Zathras dress like this", he explained, pointing with his fingers.

"I mean, how did you get here?" Helo wanted to know.

"Great war. Terrible war. Much killings. Everyone fighting. A great darkness. But, great hope of peace. Need place. Place to gather, to fight, to organize...to help save galaxy on the side of light. So they tell me. We pulled space station through time to save us all. But we went too far. Much too far. When Zathras woke up, the One was gone. Poor Zahtras was alone on space station. Zathras was searching for the One, but not finding him, no."

"Where is that space station you are talking about?" Helo asked.

"Zathras not knows. Much time has passed. Might be gone now. Anyway, when Zathras did not find the One, Zathras left space station. Zathras needed new work, needed new purpose, you know? Zathras is good worker, can do many things. Zathras is good with hands, fix things, build things. Zathras was traveling in shuttle for many many days until finding civilization.

"So you ended up here?"

"Yes, yes. After traveling many more days on space ship, Zathras come here. Zathras working here for long time. Then they said business is closed, everybody go to sleep. So Zathras went to sleep for long, long, time. But now Zathras is awake"

Back on the surface, Slartibartfast had walked away a short distance from the group of colonials, but was still within earshot. He gestured to Racetrack to follow him. "You must come with me. Great things are afoot", he said.

Racetrack hesitated. She was curious, and wanted to find out what the crazy old man was up to, but she needed to be back on the Pegasus in several hours to report her findings. It was clear to her that he was insane, but she hoped he would lead her to his ship. He didn't seem to be dangerous, though. She finally began to walk in his direction and the rest of her team started to follow her.

"There is only enough room in the capsule for the two of us. I'm afraid they will have to stay behind."

"It's okay. I can take care of myself", she said to Skulls and the marines.

"Are you sure?" Skulls asked.

She nodded.

"Come. Come now, or you will be late"

"Late for what?"

"What is your name, young lady?"

"Edmundson, Margaret Edmundson

"Late, as in the late Edmundson, Margaret Edmundson"

Racetrack looked at him bewildered.

"It's a sort of threat. I've never been good at them myself, but I've been told they can be terribly effective. There was a sphere with two seats and a bunch of controls. The top half of the sphere was made of a transparent material. Slartibartfast pushed a button and the canopy of the sphere opened slowly. Both climbed into the sphere and he pushed some buttons. The sphere began to hum and spun around slowly.

She wondered if there were any hallucinogenic drugs on this planet.

"Where are we going?" Racetrack asked as she climbed into the sphere.

"We are going deep into the bowels of the planet where even now our race is being revived from its five million year old slumber. Magrathea awakes", Slartibartfast said as the canopy closed again. Then the sphere took of floating away, with both of them inside, while Racetrack's surface team looked on. The sphere moved into a hole in the ground and through a long tunnel.

Racetrack no longer believed that Slartibartfast was a survivor of a crashed ship from the Colonies. With what she has seen and heard so far she started to believe that he was in fact from Kobol. Even though the scriptures never mentioned that, it could have been possible that some Kobolians have settled here before the founding of the Twelve Colonies. She tried to put the pieces together in her head. That would explain the advanced technology. And maybe Slartibartfast and his people had spent a long time in cryo sleep, but certainly not five million years. Maybe somewhat closer to five thousand. Still the idea of creating planets on an industrial scale seemed absurd.

"We are now deep in the heart of Magrathea, young lady", Slartibartfast announced.

The sphere began to spin again.

"I think I should warn you that the chamber we're about to enter into does not literally exist within our planet. It is simply the gateway to a vast tract of hyperspace. It may disturb you." he cautioned.

What was disturbing Racetrack was the fact that Slartibartfast was spouting more and more incoherent nonsense and she had no idea how to get back to her raptor if he finally lost his mind completely.

"It scares the willies out of me. Hold tight." Slartibartfast said.

The sphere accelerated and then seemed to make an FTL jump.

They ended up what appeared to be an enormous, completely enclosed space dock. It was brightly illuminated.

"Welcome to our factory floor. This is where we make most of our planets, you see." Slartibartfast announced.

"You mean you're starting the whole thing up again?" she asked, figuring it was best to play along. Her grandfather had suffered from dementia and he always told crazy stories shortly before he died. When she had visited him in the nursing home, she always played along thinking it would upset him if she didn't.

"Good heavens, no. The galaxy isn't nearly rich enough to afford us yet. Now we have been awakened to perform just one extraordinary function for our very special clients from another galaxy. It may interest you. There, in the distance in front of us", he explained, pointing add a strangely shaped object.

A very odd looking planet came into view. It had an odd, almost egg like shape and odd colors. Pretty much everything about that planet seemed off.

"What is this?"

"This is the planet Melmac, one of the most heavily customized planets we ever built. Actually, what you see here is a copy being built from our original blueprints." Slartibartfast explained.

"What happened to the original?" Racetrack asked.

"After the attempted demolition of the planet Earth had failed, another constructor fleet was sent to finish the job, but the coordinates that had been entered were in the New Galactic Coordinate System (NGCS), which uses the galactic core as point of origin. The navigational computers of the Vogon constructor ships were still using the outdated Betelgeusian System (BS), which had the former galactic president's home world as point of origin, which..."

"Wait, you mentioned Earth. What happened to Earth? Can you help us get there?" Racetrack interrupted. She didn't know how useful this information could be, since she was convinced the man was completely insane, but she could try anyway.

"You see, a Vogon constructor fleet had been sent out a few decades ago to demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. After what was a reported as an encounter with a self-proclaimed protector of Earth, only one ship of the whole fleet returned and Earth remained intact.", he explained.

"Can you show me Earth on a star chart in relation to other worlds?" Racetrack asked.

"What do you want on Earth, anyway? It is a rather dull place now, coincidentally inhabited by people quite similar to yourself." Slartibartfast landed the sphere on a platform at the end of the dock and opened the canopy.

"My people have been looking for Earth for almost a year since our home worlds were destroyed by the Cylons.

"Your home worlds? The 12 Colonies of Kobol, as you call them? I was most upset when I heard of their destruction. It's quite a shame, actually. Five more minutes and it all would not have mattered so much."

"Not have mattered? Billions of people died! And you say it wouldn't have mattered?" Racetrack got angry at his callousness.

"They were destroyed five minutes before the completion of the purpose for which they were built."

Slartibartfast got out of the sphere and walked down a flight of stairs, followed by Racetrack. They entered what appeared to be Slartibartfast's laboratory.

"A diode blew in one of the life support computers When we came to revive our cleaning staff, we discovered they had been dead for 30,000 years", he explained the messy state of his lab.

"Who is going to clear away the bodies, that's what no one seems to have an answer for.", he went on.

Slartibartfast explained to Racetrack how Earth was built as supercomputer to calculate the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

"After several millennia we realized that Earth's calculations were becoming unstable with that Gallifreyan time lord constantly mucking about", Slartibartfast explained.

Racetrack stared at him in disbelief. She had no idea what a time lord was.

"All the time travel, going back and forth in history and changing things was introducing new variables to Earth's computations. Variables the computer had never been programmed to take into account, such as people dying before they were born, others meeting their older selves, various other time paradoxes, etc., you name it.", he kept explaining.

"Without the proper exception handling routines, the program had been corrupted within a few thousand years to the point that it would produce complete nonsense as a result", he continued.

"Instead of rebooting Earth, it had been decided to start over from scratch. With advances in parallel computing it would only take a few thousand years instead of 10 Million, but 12 planet sized computers had been necessary. The twelve colonies were built for parallel processing and for backup. Exception handling routines were written into the program to deal with any temporal interference caused by time travel." Slartibartfast rambled on.

"Five minutes before they were done computing, they were nuked by the Cylons. They were not outright destroyed, but rendered useless as computers. Unfortunately the clients that had commissioned Earth as well as the 12 Colonies are unable to afford a replacement", he finished.

"You mean the Lords of Kobol?" she asked.

"If you want to call them that. Anyway, we will have to refurbish the colonies and reboot the program." he responded.

"And what about Earth?" Racetrack wanted to know.

"Unfortunately, Earth is off limits to us and to our clients, thanks to a certain time lord who had declared himself its protector." Slartibartfast explained.

"Can't you use that strange planet we saw earlier as a computer?" she suggested.

"Heavens, no. This is a completely different project, you know? See, the original planet Melmac was mistaken for Earth and demolished due to a navigational error, about seven years after the original attempt to demolish Earth. Hell, Melmac is not even in the same galaxy. Those Vogons and their stubbornness! Anyway, several million Melmacians survived on starships and on Melmac's colonies. They filed a lawsuit, and after 20 years the court ruled in their favor, deciding that an identical replacement for Melmac shall be built, with the Vogons covering the expenses. "

Racetrack wanted to ask another question, when Zathras walked in with Helo and his team.

"Ah, Zathras, there you are. Have you completed the repairs on the weather control system?"

"No, Zathras did not finish repairs. Zathras had wrong tool. Zathras went to get right tool when meeting these people in corridor", Zathras explained, pointing at the visitors.

Helo and Racetrack decided to spend the remaining time on the surface attempting to get as much information out of Slartibartfast and Zathras as possible and let their superiors try to sort out fact from fiction later. Both often wondered if there were any facts at all, or if Slartibartfast made it all up as he went on. Zathras was not very useful at all, since most of his remarks were very cryptic and he seemed to have problems with the language spoken by the Colonials.

Slartibartfast promised to provide more information, such as the location of Earth and a detailed history of the galaxy in the near future, at a later meeting with the leaders of the Colonials.

When the time allocated for the surface exploration mission had elapsed, all teams except a few marines guarding the recently captured missile site returned to the Pegasus for their debriefing. Slartibartfast monitored the fleet in orbit and the raptors launching from the surface. As soon as the last raptor had taken off, he approached Zathras.

"Zathras, we must relocate the planet before they return. You know what to do", Slartibartfast told him.

"Yes, yes, Zathras knows. Zathras will do.", Zathras said.

"You also know that you won't be able to come back to Magrathea?" Slartibartfast reminded him.

"Yes, Zathras knows, but Zathras will go anyway. Zathras will do what Zathras is being told." Zathras said obediently.

"You must hurry. We don't have much time", Slartibartfast told him as Zathras scuttled out the door.

Zathras, now wearing a heavy fur coat, climbed down the ladder. It was very cold there. The further he went down, the colder it got. He finally reached a chamber with walls of rough-hewn stone. A thin layer of ice crystals was covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. The ceiling was supported by a rough rock column adorned with hieroglyphs. An elaborate wooden wheel held together with metal bindings was sticking out of one of the walls. Zathras rubbed his hands together and began turning the wheel counter clockwise. It was stuck at first and he had to wiggle it back and forth a bit, but then it moved.

The Pegasus had just recovered the Raptors with the survey teams, as suddenly the planet Magrathea disappeared in a flash of light.

When Zathras opened his eyes, he found himself laying on his back in the hot sand. Not one sun, but two were beating down mercilessly on the desert. Zathras got up and took off his fur coat. "Not good, no. Zathras does not like hot weather."


	8. Chapter 8

Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh were conducting the debriefing of the surface teams aboard the Pegasus, when the phone rang. The Admiral's son, Commander Lee Adama was also present, reading through some of the reports. As commander of the Pegasus he answered the phone.

"Sir, we are having an urgent call from Colonial One", the voice on the other end of the line said.

"I'm in the middle of a debriefing. Can't that wait until later?" he asked.

"Sorry, sir. It's the president. He says it's urgent", the communications officer in the CIC said.

"Okay, put him through", Lee Adama said, knowing he had no other choice than to take the call.

"I don't know what you are planning, but this is not funny!" the president yelled.

"Excuse me, Mr. President. What do you mean?"

"I looked out of the window and saw New Caprica vanish right in front of my eyes. I don't know what kind of trick your father is pulling, but there will be consequences!" Baltar threatened.

"The planet is gone, sir", Commander Adama stated calmly.

"What do you mean with the planet is gone?" President Baltar yelled. "Is this some sort of sick joke?"

"The planet seemed to make an FTL jump just when our raptors were getting ready to land aboard Pegasus", Lee Adama explained. "It has completely disappeared. We have absolutely nothing on DRADIS."

"I demand to speak with the team leaders in person. Immediately!"

Shortly afterwards Colonial One landed in the starboard hangar bay of the Pegasus. President Baltar walked into the pilot briefing room and made Helo and Racetrack report to him in minute detail what they had seen and heard on the planet.

"So if I understand what you said about this Zathras character right, someone from the future sent a space station back in time to help us fight the Cylons?", the president asked after he had impatiently listened to the reports, pacing back and forth.

"This all sounds like a load of crap to me", Tigh said. "Time travel is impossible"

Baltar glared at him.

"Zathras described it as a place to gather, to fight, and to organize our forces. Sounds like some sort of command center, a staging area." Helo explained

"We need to concentrate our efforts on finding this space station. If Zathras is right, maybe we eventually find Earth. Imagine the thirteenth tribe being so far ahead of us that they have time travel technology. They could send back a powerful space station, loaded with their most advanced weapons and technology, supplies, ammunition and anything else we need to defeat the Cylons once and for all. A place where we can repair and upgrade our ships." Baltar suggested.

"Those are all wild speculations. We need to be realistic here", Admiral Adama reminded.

"We don't know if even the slightest bit of what those two frakking nutcases on the planet told our teams is true.", Tigh said.

"I saw some of their machines and equipment with my own eyes", Racetrack said.

"A whole industry to create custom made planets? Come on, give me a frakkin break." Tigh scoffed. "Not even our craziest Sci-Fi authors could come up with something as half-brained as that.

The idea of permanent settlement on New Caprica had turned into a total fiasco for Baltar. The sudden disappearance of the planet he had named New Caprica had sent his political career into a downward spiral before it even had a chance to take off. Gaius Baltar was intelligent, but he didn't know how to lead people. He almost always let his oversized ego get in the way and he rarely listened to the advice of others. He prepared a speech, to address the people in the fleet. He decided to use the information about the space station to give the people a new goal, to find this station and with it advanced technology to fight the Cylons as well as clues that would lead to Earth. This speech was an attempt to salvage what he could from this political disaster.

Admiral Adama, Colonel Tigh and former president Laura Roslin were listening to Baltar's speech to the people in the fleet.

Twelve marines were considered MIA after they had landed in two Raptors and secured the missile installation on the planet that had fired at the Pegasus several days earlier. They had been left behind to guard the missile site until the weapons experts and a replacement team arrived, while all other teams had returned to the Pegasus for the debriefing.

Admiral Adama was infuriated over Baltar's recklessness that had resulted in the loss of personnel and equipment. He vowed to do whatever he could get away with to oppose the president, short of staging a military coup, should Baltar ever risk the safety of the people in the fleet again in such a careless manner.

Baltar's popularity among the people had dropped considerably, even more so after his speech. Very little information had been released about what happened on "New Caprica" and why the planet had suddenly disappeared. Some people still believed the two men on the planet were survivors of a crash, others believed they were descendants of Kobolians, or even the thirteenth tribe, and still others believed they had been completely made up. Most people however agreed that this had all been some part of a huge conspiracy and they had been lied to. Everyone was angry at the president they had just elected two days earlier and there were many calls for his resignation.

When Baltar went to see Gina, even she didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. "Leave me alone and move on", she had told him and closed the door of her quarters right in front of his face without even giving him any opportunity to respond. She seemed to have changed into a completely different woman apparently overnight. Not only did she appear much more confident, but she had changed physically as well. Her hair was now considerably longer than just a few days earlier and the scars on her back were completely gone. Gina Inviere had spent an entire year traveling with the Doctor, but according to the clock in her quarters she had only been gone for fifteen minutes.

_End flashback_

After telling the worms about the discovery and disappearance of Magrathea, or New Caprica, as then-president Gaius Baltar had named it, they finally gave Starbuck the coordinates of Earth. The freighter they were on was currently en route to a trading station several day's travel away, about half way between Earth and Takwella, the home world of the worms.

Starbuck pulled out a deck of triad cards and taught the worms how to play. She managed to win back her Viper, including the parts the worms had removed. They had earlier claimed the viper under some obscure salvage rights as a fee for saving her life.

"This game is no fun at all. You keep winning all the time!" one of the worms said in frustration.

"Yeah", another one agreed.

"Let's play poker", the worm with the large hat suggested.

"Poker! Poker! Poker!" the worms shouted.

"Sore losers! Never heard of poker." Starbuck said.

"The humans on Earth play it a lot. Agent J has taught me how to play", the worm with the hat said and pulled out a deck of poker cards.

"Okay, fair enough. You teach me", Starbuck gave in.

"And when she loses, she'll have to take her clothes off", one of the worms suggested, vaguely remembering some humans playing strip poker on TV while he was on Earth.

"I am not going to take any of my clothes off!" Starbuck insisted.

"Spoilsport", the worm said.

Starbuck lit one of the Cuban cigars, while the worm with the hat shuffled the cards and started dealing. They were hoping they could win some of their stuff back, since Starbuck was new to this game. But after a few rounds she managed to catch on and began winning again. She got fairly good at playing poker and managed to win some star charts, a box of Cuban cigars, several bottles of Vodka, and a another bottle of Whiskey. She also ended up with a glass jar with a yellow lid labeled "Vegemite" and a few other items she did not recognize. Starbuck later used the contents of this jar to grease the landing gear and other moving parts when she reassembled her Viper with the help of the worms.

Another item she had won during the card game was an electronic book with "Don't Panic" on the cover. She had asked the worms earlier about other aliens and they told her she could find all the information she wanted in this book. The device had options to display the stored information as text, audio, video, or a combination of those.

"Mostly harmless? Seriously? Is that all?" she asked in surprise after playing the audio information about Earth.

"It's an older version, a bit outdated", one of the worms explained.

"Yeah, by a couple hundred years", another one added.

"You need to download an update", a third one said.

After a few more days of Starbuck fixing her Viper and playing cards and drinking with the worms, the freighter finally arrived at their destination, a trading station built into a hollowed out asteroid. Here the worms were planning to sell off many of the goods they had acquired on Earth, with the exception of alcohol, coffee and tobacco products. Those however they were going to take to Takwella to sell on the black market for astronomical prices, especially coffee.

The pilot of the worm alien freighter announced that they were on approach to Trading Outpost Sybelius-19 and were preparing to land in 10 minutes. Starbuck went to the cockpit and looked at the view screen that showed the outpost in front of the freighter. She could see dozens of ships orbiting the asteroid, the ones that were too massive to land on the hundreds of landing platforms and runways scattered around the trading station on the surface of the asteroid.

When Starbuck looked at the numerous ships circling the asteroid again, she couldn't believe her eyes. There was a Mercury Class battlestar and several other ships that she immediately recognized as Colonial in design. She also saw several other ships of unfamiliar design flying in formation with the battlestar and the civilian ships. The largest of the strange ships looked organic and was similar in size to the battlestar. Then there were several yellow, chunky, slab like ships following the battlestar together with the civilian ships. Starbuck realized that something must have happened. Where was the Galactica? And there were much fewer civilian ships following what appeared to be the Pegasus. Did the Cylons destroy the Galactica and some of the civilian ships? Or did the admiral decide to split the fleet? Could there have been a mutiny? Where did the other ships come from? She had to find out.


	9. Chapter 9

Starbuck ran to the freighter's hangar bay and climbed into her viper. She started the engines and checked her instruments. She activated the viper's comm system and told the worm alien that was piloting the freighter to open the hangar bay doors, so she could leave.

"Sorry, but we are about to land on..." the worm said.

"Open the damn doors, or I'll shoot my way out", she yelled into her comm.

The worm pilot realized he had no other choice than to open the hangar bay doors and let her out.

Starbuck flew her viper out of the freighter's hangar bay toward the Colonial fleet, while the freighter attempted to land on the asteroid. Then, suddenly two Cylon baseships appeared on DRADIS.

"Oh frak!" Starbuck cursed.

Two more baseships jumped in on the opposite side of the fleet. The baseships started launching raiders and the battlestar launched vipers. Starbuck was surprised when the organic looking ship that seemed to belong to the fleet launched a small number of vipers as well. The civilian ships started jumping away, one by one, including the clunky yellowish ones.

Amidst the comm chatter between the vipers she could hear voices and call signs she didn't recognize. A woman with the call sign "Mad Cat" seemed to be in charge and a man with the call sign "Bojay" appeared to be her wingman.

"Ratface, this is Mad Cat. Five raiders are making a run for the Scylla. You and Noodle guard her rear flank; Bojay and I are on our way".

"That can't be right, Starbuck thought. The Scylla had been one of the ships that had been stripped and abandoned by the Pegasus. The ship was now apparently having trouble with her FTL drive and the Cylons have recognized her as an easy target. Starbuck decided to help protect the Scylla, since it was the most vulnerable ship to enemy fire. Two vipers went to intercept the raiders heading toward the Scylla, with two more on their way. Starbuck saw eight more raiders leaving the main formation and flying toward the Scylla. Another odd thing Starbuck noticed was that there were two cloud type luxury liners, while she remembered there had been only one, the Cloud Nine, when she had last seen the fleet. She was now between the two luxury liners, getting closer, but still too far to join the fight.

Two vipers began exchanging fire with five raiders. Two of the raiders exploded in fireballs and one of the vipers lost its starboard wing.

"Ratface, I'm hit, I'm hit", Starbuck could hear a male voice frantically shouting.

"Stay calm, Noodle", she heard his wingman reply.

Ratface brought his viper around and fired. He managed to destroy two of the raiders, but was unable to save Noodle.

Four raiders and one viper had been destroyed in this engagement, while at the same time similar dogfights were going on all around the slowly retreating civilian fleet. The fifth raider began a strafing run on the Scylla before being destroyed by the two other vipers which seemed to have arrived just in time. They appeared to belong to Mad Cat and her wingman Bojay. They barely had enough time forming up with the surviving viper when the eight raiders came into weapons range. Starbuck came out from behind one of the cloud type ships, which was jumping out at the exact same moment. She fired on the raiders, destroying two and damaging a third. The remaining raiders damaged one of Mad Cat's engines and destroyed another viper, which seemed to be the one belonging to Ratface. Mad Cat was able to destroy one of the raiders and Bojay got another two. The damaged engine prevented Mad Cat from performing more tricky maneuvers; otherwise she might have scored at least another kill. Starbuck could tell by the actions of the other pilots that Noodle and Ratface must have been complete nuggets who could possibly have survived if they had been more experienced. Mad Cat and Bojay however seemed to be seasoned veterans.

The remaining raiders attempted an attack run on the Scylla, but were quickly destroyed by Starbuck and the other two vipers before they could do any major damage other than scorching a few hull plates.

And then her comm unit began to crackle again.

"Unknown Viper, this is Mad Cat. Please identify yourself", the pilot of one of the vipers said through her comm.

"Mad Cat, this is Starbuck"

"Starbuck? We don't have anyone with that call sign. But thanks for pulling our asses out of the fire. Please stand by to be escorted to the Pacifica"

"The Pacifica? You guys are from the Pacifica?" Starbuck couldn't believe that another battlestar had survived.

One of the baseships that were trading shots with the battlestar was hit by three nukes and exploded. The other one was missing two of its arms. The battlestar had taken some minor damage.

A squadron of heavy raiders fired missiles at the asteroid base. Some of the missiles were destroyed by the base's defense grid, but there were too many. A damaged basestar kept attacking the battlestar and the civilian fleet, while one basestar joined the heavy raiders in the attack on the outpost and the other two gunned down several of the other ships of unknown design. Starbuck cringed as she saw the worms' freighter explode.

Some of the alien ships fought back, but were no match for the firepower of the basestars and their raiders until finally a group of 3 alien ships formed up and concentrated their fire on one of the baseships. These three ships were very similar in design, with one of them larger than the other two. They had been caught by surprise and it had taken their crews a while to get their bearings, but now they had targeted the attackers and were heading toward them with all guns blazing. By now the last civilian ships, including the cloud type passenger liners and the lightly damaged Scylla had jumped out of the system.

"Pacifica actual to all vipers. Return to the barn immediately. We're bugging out", Starbuck could hear through her comm.

While the surviving vipers, including Starbuck, were returning to the Pacifica, the three alien warships had managed to destroy one of the Cylon basestars, while the Cylons had destroyed the trading outpost and many of the alien ships.

After Starbuck had landed her Viper in the port hangar bay of the Pacifica she was escorted to the brig by marines, who told her that they needed to verify that she was in fact a pilot from the Galactica and not a Cylon imposter. She was used to spending time in the brig, albeit for different reasons. She still could not believe that Pacifica and another whole fleet of civilian ships had survived.

As the commander walked in, Starbuck stood up and saluted. He returned the salute.

"Welcome aboard the Battlestar Pacifica, Captain Thrace. Please excuse the rough treatment. Security measures." the commander of the Pacifica apologized. He gestured the marines to leave.

"I am Commander John Crichton", he introduced himself.


	10. Chapter 10

Starbuck was sitting across from Crichton's desk in his office aboard the Pacifica. After she had been let out of her cell and given back her pistol she explained to him how the Galactica and a fleet of civilian ships had escaped the destruction of the Twelve Colonies and later caught up with the Pegasus. She told him about the planet they had called New Caprica, and how she had been separated from the fleet and rescued by the worm aliens.

"The Pegasus. We actually found the fleet Cain had left behind. 15 civilian ships with now means of defending themselves. Glad that cold, heartless bitch bit the dust...Her daughter makes is a fine CAG, though", Crichton said when Starbuck mentioned the Pegasus.

"Cain's daughter?" Starbuck asked.

"Sheba Cain, call sign Mad Cat. I believe you've met her"

"Yeah, we could call it that. It's a funny irony she saved the Scylla, one of the ships her mother abandoned. By the way, there are some ships in your fleet that I don't recognize." Starbuck inquired.

"Yeah, the large one is Moya, the yellow ones we call the mystery fleet".

"Mystery fleet?"

"We found them drifting in space shortly after those walking trash cans attacked the Colonies. The ships were packed with food and medical supplies, but had plenty of room left. We loaded them up with people from the sublight ships you guys had to leave behind".

"So you found an entire fleet loaded with food and supplies?"

"Pretty much. Too bad though they didn't have any beer on board and the pizzas were kinda stale." Crichton complained.

"And what about this Moya?" Starbuck asked.

"Umm, Moya is a classified project. Sorry, but you don't have the security clearance for this kind of information", Crichton hoped she would not ask any more questions about Moya. It was already hard enough to keep the truth about her a secret from the rest of his crew. He had told them that Moya was a top secret research project and his wife Aeryn was a Colonial Intelligence Officer in command of Moya.

The fact that Admiral Adama was trying to lead a fleet of survivors to Earth worried John Crichton. After his experimental spacecraft Farscape One had flung him to what seemed to be the farthest corner of the galaxy, his main goal had been for several years to find a way back to Earth. But after he had reached the Twelve Colonies during their destruction at the hands of the Cylons and found himself in command of the Pacifica, things had changed drastically. He had realized he needed to shift his priorities, making sure that the survivors of the twelve colonies would never, ever reach Earth, while protecting them at the same time from the Cylons.

Crichton knew that if the Colonials found Earth, the Cylons would eventually get there as well. And Earth was by far not ready to deal with the Cylons. He had witnessed firsthand what level of destruction these machines were capable of when they nuked the colonies. He needed to prevent the same thing from happening to Earth. At any cost. No matter how much he wanted to go back and see his father and two sisters. And then there was his family aboard Moya to protect: His wife Aeryn, five year old D'Argo, and three year old Xhalax.

Suddenly someone banged on the hatch that served as door to Crichton's office. He opened and someone Starbuck immediately recognized as a Model 3 Cylon in colonial uniform walked in.

"Commander, our raptors have returned from the SAR mission and found..." the woman began to report.

"She's a frakking Cylon, they look like us", Starbuck jumped up, pointing her pistol at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold your horses, lady", Crichton intervened, jumping up from behind his desk.

He managed to get her to put her gun down.

"She might be a Terminator, but she's on our side now. We know about the human models." Crichton explained and managed to talk her out of shooting his XO.

"Please continue, Major Robbins"

"Sir, our raptors have found four of our missing pilots alive, which brings our casualties from the last battle down to 13 dead pilots and 8 wounded. We have lost 17 vipers and 21 more will need intensive repairs. Our total casualties are 38 dead and 47 wounded across the fleet." Major Sandra Robbins continued.

"What about the survivors from the alien ships? One of the raptor pilots mentioned they found escape pods"

"Our crews have rescued around fifty or sixty survivors from various alien ships that had been destroyed in the battle. They have been brought aboard Moya, as per your orders, sir. One particular group of survivors has repeatedly been demanding to be given coffee."

"I will talk to the alien survivors in person. And make them some coffee, for Pete's sake. There should be plenty of it left from the mystery fleet. Anything else?"

"Our people made contact with the three alien ships that were fighting with us against the Cylons. They have identified themselves as a task force from the Hynerian Empire. Their leader, General Rashon, is interested in pursuing diplomatic relations with us."

"That sounds good. I will meet with him tomorrow. Did our salvage ships find any goodies?" Crichton asked.

"Atwood's people picked up debris from several Cylon ships, but they're not sure yet if any of it is useful. They also managed to retrieve parts of some of the alien ships."

Crichton wondered what the Hynerians were doing so far from their territory. He recognized the designs of their ships when he had gone over camera footage from the battle. He was glad they had been around, or else the Pacifica would not have lasted much longer. Most of the other alien ships that had visited the asteroid outpost had been freighters or passenger ships with little or no weapons. The only ships beside the Pacifica that managed to put up a fight against the Cylons were the Hynerian battlecruiser and the two Hynerian light cruisers.

"Major Robbins, inform the flight deck that I will be leaving for Moya in twenty minutes. Then contact the Hynerians and tell General Rashon that I would like to meet with him at his earliest convenience to discuss diplomatic relations. You are dismissed."

"Aye, sir", the XO saluted and walked out the door.

"Captain Thrace, you are now a part of my fighter wing, until we meet up with Adama's fleet. Based on your rank and experience as flight instructor I am assigning you as squadron leader to Tiger squadron. Most of the pilots under your command are still a bit wet behind the ears, so I want you to bring them up to snuff."

"Understood, sir", Starbuck replied.

"I'm heading over to Moya now to have a talk with those hitchhikers we picked up and after that I've got daddy duty. My wife will hit me over the head with the frying pan or her pulse pistol if I'm not home in time for dinner."

"Pulse pistol?" Starbuck asked as they walked out of Crichton's office and into the corridor.

"I'm sure you noticed that a standard issue pistol won't even put a dent in a Cylon Centurion, unless you shoot him in the head. But you can turn those walking garbage cans into Swiss cheese with this baby here. Say hi to Winona." Crichton unholstered his pulse pistol and waved it around.

After Starbuck had taken a shower she went to hang out with the Pacifica's pilots. She was one of them now, for the time being. There were quite a few things that struck Starbuck as odd about this Commander Crichton. In their hour long conversation he had several times used terms and figures of speech she was not familiar with. He also carried a sidearm that was not standard issue and he didn't seem to be big on military discipline. She wanted to know what the rest of his crew thought about him.

Starbuck sat down at a table with Sheba and her wingman Bojay, whose full name was Jason Bormann. She ordered a drink and lit one of the cigars she had won from the worms in a card game a few days earlier.

Sheba looked like a younger version of Admiral Cain, but her hair was lighter. Starbuck wondered how it must have been like growing up with Helena Cain as mother. Her own childhood had been rough, but that must have been even worse.

"Your commander is a bit strange; I mean the way he talks. One time he referred to the Cylons as "Terminators". Hell, I don't even know what a Terminator is."

"That doesn't surprise me. Half the time I don't even know what he is talking about, but he is a brilliant tactician. His strategies and battle plans are solid." Bojay answered.

"Don't let Crichton fool you. He may seem to act like stupid school boy some times, but he is a lot smarter than he lets on." Sheba added.

"After Commander Kronus got killed in the blast that took our CIC out, Crichton just showed up in auxiliary control and started giving orders", Bojay explained. "At least that's what Lt. Hill told us. He was there when it happened"

"So Crichton was not an original member of your crew?" Starbuck asked.

"No, it seems like he was from another ship. I think the Pegasus picked him up when we rescued the survivors from BSG 21. I don't know. Sheba and I were both out there getting our asses kicked by the Cylons when Crichton took command. We had lost contact with the Pacifica for a while, and then suddenly Crichton ordered us back to the barn and jumped us beyond the red line."

"And you started following his orders?"

"He was the highest ranking officer at the time. Most of our command crew died when the toasters blew our CIC up", Sheba responded.

"So, do you guys trust him?" Starbuck asked.

"He is certainly not a Cylon, if that's what you mean. Without him, none of us would be alive", Sheba answered.


	11. Chapter 11

**Flashback**

**-Alien spaceport, 8 weeks before the fall of the Colonies**

The Doctor had shown Gina Inviere many interesting places since he had "abducted" her from Cloud Nine. They have been on an old wooden sailing ship, the Santa Maria, when Columbus discovered America, they watched Neil Armstrong make his first step onto the moon, and they had been to Caprica when the first settlers from Kobol landed. The Doctor had taken her to many other important events in human history, both in the history of Earth as well as in the history of the Twelve Colonies. He had shown Gina many exotic places as well and they had met many interesting species. One of these places had been a planet with purple sky, two suns, four moons, and tall, singing flowers that glowed in ever changing colors at night. He watched her learn and understand. Even though Gina was very attractive and intelligent, the Doctor was not romantically or sexually interested in her. He was still grieving over Rose Tyler, who was separated from him forever, being stuck in a parallel universe. No, the Doctor saw Gina Inviere the way a teacher sees a student. He recognized her potential and wanted to help her grow as a person and expand her horizon. They were having a conversation about time travel over dinner at a busy restaurant as they waited to meet with John Crichton.

"The destruction of the Colonies is a fixed point in time. There's nothing we can do. But we can try to save as many people as possible", the Doctor explained to Gina.

"But how can you change some things in the past and not others?" she asked.

"Part of being a Time Lord is that I can see which parts are fixed and which ones are fluid and can be changed.", he continued.

The Doctor looked around and spotted John Crichton walking in.

"Ahh, there he is", the Doctor exclaimed.

"Come on over and join us", he said, waving at Crichton.

"You said you had some star charts for me?" Crichton asked as he pulled up a chair.

"Yes, yes. The star charts are on this data crystal here", the doctor said and held up a data crystal. "Sit down; there are a few things that I need to tell you first."

"I'm all ears", Crichton said and sat down on a chair at the Doctor's table.

"This is the last civilized place before you reach the Cyrannus System. It will take you several weeks to get there, so stock up on supplies.

"What would I want in the Cyrannus System?" Crichton asked.

"You will find that location quite interesting. It has twelve habitable planets, all inhabited by humans. That's right, humans just like you. No Sebbaceans, no Gallifreyans. Just plain old humans." the Doctor answered.

John Crichton wondered if those humans in the Cyrannus System knew how to brew beer, if they ate prime rib steaks and if they played football or similar sports. Maybe their technology was compatible with Earth technology and he could buy a few gadgets to upgrade his old Farscape module.

As the waitress stopped by at their table, Crichton ordered his meal. He hoped that it was at least better than that algae soup he and his family had been eating for the past three weeks.

"How did those people get there? Did some small green men in flying saucers pick them up on good ol' Earth and just decided to drop them off in that system? And twelve habitable planets, all in one system, that really sounds a bit odd." Crichton said skeptically.

"Well, according to their history, the Cyrannus System was colonized a few thousand years ago by people from a planet named Kobol. I've put some files about their culture and history on the data crystal with the star charts".

"So, you are sending me on a road trip to visit some cousins of humanity, but what do you get out of this? I mean, what's in it for you?" Crichton asked, full of suspicions.

This whole deal sounded fishy to Crichton. He was used to people trying to manipulate him and he thought for a moment that Scorpius had finally caught up with him again and had sent one of his agents to trick him into running into a trap.

"Does there have to be anything in it for me?" The Doctor asked.

Crichton's experiences over the past several years had made him very cautious. He had learned to mistrust strangers. But the more he kept thinking about it, the more he began to dismiss the idea of Scorpius being involved in this. Scorpius was too far away, and if he had followed Moya all the way out here, he would have made himself known at an earlier opportunity. Still, his dealings with Scorpius had made him paranoid. He continued his conversation with the Doctor, who handed him a data crystal and then left after they had all finished their meal.

"I think he swallowed it", the Doctor said after Crichton had left.

"He didn't look very convinced to me", Gina responded, after she had not said a single word during the conversation between the Doctor and John Crichton.

"But his curiosity will eventually catch up with him. This is an opportunity too good for him to pass up", the Doctor said.

"I can't believe that you sent him to the Colonies. My people will attack in what? Seven or eight weeks? Something like that. And you just sent him there to die?" Gina complained.

"No, not to die. To prevent others from dying", the Doctor countered.

"But what if he gets killed?" Gina asked.

"He won't get killed. There is a certain kind of people you can throw into what seems to be a no win situation and they come out on top of the game no matter how bad the odds are. Crichton is one of these people and I have confidence in him to do the right thing." the Doctor explained.

The Doctor was pleased that Gina was making progress. She had shown that she actually cared what happened to Crichton and to the people in the Twelve Colonies. It had in fact been her idea to travel back in time to prevent the Cylons from destroying the Colonies. Knowing that the destruction of the Twelve Colonies was a fixed point in time that could not be altered, he had taken her here instead.

Back aboard Moya, John Crichton was having a discussion with his wife Aeryn Sun about his plans to travel to the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

"But you said yourself you don't trust this Doctor", Aeryn reminded him while helping him unload the supplies he had bought.

"But those people are my people. At least they are closely related. I want to find out how they got there."

"You and your fahrbot Erp human ideas. They always keep getting us into trouble".

"And we can possibly buy food that is actually edible. That muck I had for breakfast this morning looks like something Uncle Albert would scrape from the bottom of his Koi pond. It tastes like overcooked sewage laced with compost and I don't even want to talk about the smell." Crichton complained.

"Ssumssha Algae is very nutritious. Milinda Yshara says..." Aeryn tried to explain.

"Milinda Yshara is an Abbai. I don't doubt that this gunk makes a good meal for someone like her, since she has more in common with my uncle's prized Koi than she does with you or me. She probably doesn't even have taste buds." John interrupted his wife.

"You are such a picky eater", she criticized him.

"And you never learned to appreciate good food. But that's hardly your own fault", he countered.

"Peacekeeper soldiers were trained to eat whatever is available, no matter how bad it tastes. We can't just stop by a five star restaurant in the middle of a battle", she explained.

"Anyway, I'm not asking you to come with me. You can stay on Moya. Someone needs to keep an eye on Deke anyway." John said, knowing that Pilot was pretty much useless as a babysitter, since the alien was physically connected to Moya and therefore unable to chase after Deke when the boy would get himself into mischief again.


End file.
